In England, as in France and Germany, the main characteristics of the last fifty years, from the point of view of the student of history, has been that new material has been accumulating much faster than it can be assimilated or absorbed. When the first edition of this volume was sent to the press in 1910, I had the privilege of finding three good friends, who each revised one section of its content. The first was T. Rice Holmes, who looked over the prehistoric and early Celtic chapters. The second is Francis Haverfield, the greatest specialist in his day for all that concerned Roman Britain. The third, H. Carless Davis, then a fellow of All Souls and afterwards Regius Professor of Modern History.
